AP – When firefighters arrived at a home in a Washington DC, United States suburb to investigate a report about a gas smell on Friday night, they discovered a 500-gallon underground propane tank with a leak on the side of the residence.
Shortly after they arrived, the house exploded and burst into flames, with multiple mayday calls coming from the firefighters trapped inside.
Crews rushed in to try to rescue them from the debris that covered them, but one firefighter was killed and 10 others were injured, Loudoun County Fire and Rescue officials said on Saturday.
Four of the firefighters hurt in the blast remained in hospitals on Saturday morning, according Loudoun Fire and Rescue System Chief Keith Johnson.
Johnson said all four are expected to survive.
A total of 11 first responders were sent to hospitals with “varying degrees of injuries” on Friday night, including the one who died.
He was identified as 45-year-old Trevor Brown, a volunteer with Sterling Volunteer Fire Company. Brown was married with three children and had been with the county firefighting services since 2016, Johnson said.
“We lost a family member,” Johnson said on Saturday. “We lost one of our own. Quite frankly we’re lucky we only have one fatality. Our folks were in that house when it exploded. They did what they had to do.”
Johnson said investigators have not determined the cause of the explosion, but “we can assume it was propane-related”. He said the 500-gallon tank, located outside the house, had leaked the fuel into the house.
Two people inside the house were escorted out before the explosion and suffered only minor injuries from the blast. They were treated at local hospitals, Johnson said.
